PIG FEED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1939, Page 3

PIG FEED

ADJUSTMENTS NECESSARY NEED FOR SUPPLEMENTING AND CONSERVING SUPPLIES. SUGGESTED PROCEDURE OUTLINED. The raising .of all pig carcases exported to the United Kingdom to a minimum of 1011 b has meant that adjustments will have to be made in the quantities of pig feed used and the methods of using it. In a statement, Mr M. J. Scott, Superintendent of the Pig Industry, pointed out the necessity of farmers conserving and supplementing their feed supplies, and outlined suggestions by which this might be done.

Until changes can be made in the number of pigs carried, so as to adjust the production of baconers with the present feed supply, increased quantities of pig feed will have to be grown and different methods of using it adopted. It is no longer a matter of raising pigs to utilise dairy byproducts. Dairy by-products will have to be supplemented by crops and meals, and all feed supplies will have to be used carefully during the next eight months if all the pigs on hand . are to be disposed of. There are three chief ways by which the present supply of pigs can be turned into baconers: —(1) By killing baconers at a lighter weight and using the feed so saved to take porkers up to a heavier weight; (2) by using extra bought grain and meals; and (3) by using more grass and growing root crops to provide extra feed. Bacon producers who breed their own pigs would be giving a real assistance to the industry if, where possible, they sold their baconers just above 1201 b and bought stores to replace them. Those who produce both pork and bacon will be able to ease their own feed supply by selling light baconers and carrying their porkers to bacon weights. Those who breed pigs for pork production and the store market will be most embarrassed and will have to use bought or homegrown fcefl, and still sell the same number of stores as before. It will be necessary for the mall with too many pigs to buy meal or sell stores, and for the man with too few pigs to buy stores and finish them. During February and for the remainder of the year, it will be helpful to reduce the average weight of baconers killed, to as low a figure as possible. Since no extra feed will be available from home-grown crops for some months, purchased meal is the only source of increased supply during October, November and December. Large quantities of extra feed will be; wanted after February and especially j during April, May. June and July., l It is now too late to sow grain crops in most districts, and reliance will have to be placed on roots of various kinds. The best value is obtained from root and green crops when one pound of meat-meal or two pounds, of grain daily per pig is fed along with them, except where pigs are over 100 lb. live weight and are not fed with the object of fattening them. On the basis of using 11b of meat-meal or grain to 401 b of roots, half a ton of bought meal would be required for every twenty tons of roots grown, and. this amount of feed should produce from 900 to 1000 lb of carcase, i.e., 30 to 35 pigs could be increased in carcase weight by 301 b each. In addition to growing roots, some farmers may find it profitable to feed only a' little milk to growing pigs, make

more use of ordinary grass or other grazing, and top off with milk dr bought grain. Pigs so fed would grow at from two-thirds to three-quarters of a pound daily while on grass and limited skim-milk, and IJlb daily when shut up. It is estimated that a pig that grows to 1751 b in six months on milk alone requires approximately ’5OO gallons of milk under the best conditions of feeding, whereas pigs turned out to grass and given a foundation of 2 gallons of milk daily for the whole of this period and then finished on) an average of 6 gallons, require approximately 430 gallons of milk. This represents a saving of milk accompanied by an increase of six weeks in*time required to feed the animal. This procedure would conserve feed supplies, which are now more vitally important than ever, but it will increase the amount of work on the part of the farmer. This change in the balance between work and feed supply is made necessary because of the general inadequacy of the existing feed supply to feed all pigs.